Ex-Wall Street financier Howard Rubin’s longtime personal assistant has been accused of helping lure dozens of women into a decade-long sex-trafficking operation, while living in luxury funded by her boss.
Jennifer Powers, 46, was set to appear Wednesday in the Brooklyn federal court for the first time since her indictment on charges that she worked alongside Rubin to recruit and transport women for sexual abuse in hotels and in a Midtown penthouse dubbed “The Dungeon.”
Highlights
- Ex-Wall Street financier Howard Rubin’s assistant, Jennifer Powers, is accused of luring women into a decade-long sex-trafficking ring.
- Rubin allegedly funded Powers’ lavish lifestyle, spending over $9 million on mortgages, tuition, vacations, and legal fees.
- ‘The Dungeon,’ a soundproof penthouse room near Central Park, was used by Rubin for sexual abuse and violent encounters.
- Court texts reveal disturbing exchanges between Rubin and Powers about sexually abusing vulnerable women in bondage acts.
Prosecutors say Rubin, once a high-profile money manager, bankrolled virtually every aspect of Powers’ life and family expenses for years.
The ex-Wall Street financier’s personal assistant is accused of recruiting women for sexual abuse
Image credits: Steve Powers/Instagram
Court filings allege he poured over $9 million into covering her mortgage, private school tuition for her children, credit card bills, legal fees, and vacations.
Authorities also charged Powers and her husband, DJ Steve Powers, with filing false tax returns between 2018 and 2024.
Prosecutors said the couple failed to report Rubin’s payments while claiming less than $40,000 combined income.
“Their entire lives are funded by Rubin,” prosecutors said.
Prosecutors allege Jennifer Powers was finding women and flying them to New York, where Rubin would allegedly sexually abuse them at small hotels and in a room in an $18,000-a-month rented penthouse near Central Park. The room was soundproofed and dubbed “The Dungeon.”
Prosecutors also claimed Rubin paid for the rooms near Central Park for violent encounters.
Image credits: Jonathon Ziegler/Getty Images
Messages released in court documents describe Rubin and Powers exchanging disturbing texts about the abuse.
In one, prosecutors say Powers messaged Rubin after he told her he had tied a woman to a cross.
“I can only imagine what you did to her on that cross!!! Did you shock her p***y??” Powers allegedly wrote. Rubin allegedly responded that he had.
Other messages allegedly show Rubin boasting about exploiting financially vulnerable women, telling an unnamed co-conspirator the woman hated being “submissive but she’s brokke [sic] and says she’ll do anything!”
The scheme allegedly ran from 2009 through 2019. During this time, Rubin recruited dozens of women to engage in commercial sex acts with him involving bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, and sadomasochism, according to the criminal charges filed against him.
“During many such encounters, Rubin engaged in conduct beyond the scope of the women's consent,” the indictment said.
Howard Rubin allegedly engaged in sexual assault in a soundproof room, known as ‘The Dungeon’
Image credits: Mireya Acierto/Getty Images
Prosecutors say Rubin paid Powers’ expenses throughout, including her down payment and mortgage on a Texas home she and her family moved into after leaving New York.
Jennifer Powers was released on Monday on an $850,000 bond and a GPS monitor before her Brooklyn hearing.
The Carroll Independent School District in Southlake confirmed that Powers recently worked as a substitute teacher but has since been removed from the role.
Rubin, 70, has pleaded not guilty to sex-trafficking charges and is being held without bail in New York.
He was previously found liable for millions of dollars in a 2022 civil trial brought by several women who accused him of violent sexual assaults, though Powers was cleared in that case.
“For many years, Howard Rubin and Jennifer Powers allegedly spent at least one million dollars to finance the commercial sexual torture of multiple women via a national trafficking network,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher Raia said in a statement.
“The defendants allegedly exploited Rubin’s status to ensnare their prospective victims and forced them to endure unthinkable physical trauma before silencing any outcries with threats of legal recourse.”
Image credits: Steve Powers/Instagram
Defense attorney Duncan Levin, a former federal prosecutor, said the criminal case may rest on new evidence or witnesses not presented in civil court.
“They have all sorts of tools at their disposal that civil litigants don’t that might not have come into the civil trial,” Levin told The New York Post.
Jennifer and Steve Powers had a glamorous image, highlighted by flashy vacations, luxury purchases like a vintage Lincoln Continental convertible, and private plane journeys.
The Rubin case has drawn attention because of its resemblance to the case of Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy New York financier accused of exploiting women, with Ghislaine Maxwell being his accomplice in luring women for him.
Epstein also operated out of Upper East Side mansions and private estates, while his wealth and connections protected him.
Rubin’s next court date is scheduled for October 20.